Frank Ocean - Channel Orange (2012)

because playbacks are awful affairs where you don't get to listen properly?

i only go to them if i don't have to write about the album immediately

i'm not sure what to make of the fact that frank played the album for journalists in both NY & LA and no one caught onto any hint of bisexuality

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 3 July 2012 00:30 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

yyyeah i didnt want to come out and say max from 1xtra might not be the sharpest tool in the box but...

yeah i'm not believing this until there's a better source

that said, WS frank ocean he's totally my type

just sayin

lol @ twitter beef with Chris Brown btw

if true, would that mean he has dicks in his damn chain as well as boobies?

I think boobies in his damn chain signify "topic for further research."

http://i.imgur.com/fn04r.png

How's this for a source? Direct from the man's tumblr.

Better source: his tumblr - http://frankocean.tumblr.com/post/26473798723

But more important than him coming out, which is definitely a big deal, don't get me wrong? How gorgeous a piece of writing that is. This isn't some pro forma confirmation, and it's not some sort of a 'after much thought, i have decided it's important to provide a good example for the kids' or whatever a la anderson cooper or quinto or whoever. no whiff of PR about this.

it's a stunning description not just of the fact of his sexuality but the process of discovery, and a really gracious, sincere thank you to his first love.

Anyway. Mad props. Was already curious to hear what the album would be, more curious now.

Yeah, it can't be understated how beautifully he conveyed this.

Text, for those who can't easily read images right now:

"what i’m about to post is for anyone who cares to read. it was intended to fill the thank you’s section in my album credits, but with all the rumors going round.. i figured it’d be good to clarify..

Whoever you are, wherever you are, I’m beginning to think we’re a lot alike. Human beings spinning on blackness. All wanting to be seen, touched, heard, paid attention to. My loved ones are everything to me here. In the last year or 3 I’ve screamed at my creator. Screamed at clouds in the sky. For some explanation. Mercy maybe. For peace of mind to rain like manna somehow. 4 summers ago, I met somebody. I was 19 years old. He was too. We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. Everyday almost. And on the days we were together, time would glide. Most of the day I’d see him, and his smile. I’d hear his conversation and his silence … until it was time to sleep. Sleep I would often share with him. By the time I realized I was in love, it was malignant. It was hopeless. There was no escaping, no negotiation with the feeling. No choice. It was my first love, it changed my life. Back then, my mind would wander to the women I had been with, the ones I cared for and thought I was in love with. I reminisced about the sentimental songs I enjoyed when I was a teenager … the ones I played when I experienced a girlfriend fo rthe first time. I realized they were written in a language I did not yet speak. I realized too much, too quickly. Imagine being thrown from a plane. I wasn’t in a plane though. I was in a Nissan Maxima, the same car I packed up with bags and drove to Los Angeles in. I sat there and told my friend how I felt. I wept as the words left my mouth. I grieved for them, knowing I could never take them back for myself. He patted my back. He said kind things. He did his best. But he wouldn’t admit the same. He had to go back inside soon. It was late and his girlfriend was waiting for him upstairs. He wouldn’t tell me the truth about his feelings for me for another 3 years. I felt like I’d only imagined reciprocity for years. Now imagine being thrown from a cliff. No, I wasn’t on a cliff. I was still in my car telling myself it was gonna be fine and to take deep breaths. I took the breaths and carried on. I kept up a peculiar friendship with him because I couldn’t imagine keeping up my life without him. I struggled to master myself and my emotions. I wasn’t always successful.

The dance went on … I kept the rhythm for several summers after. It’s winter now. I’m typing this on a plane back to Los Angeles from New Orleans. I flew home for another marred Christmas. I have a windowseat. It’s December 27, 2011. By now I’ve written two albums, this being the second. I wrote to keep myself busy and sane. I wanted to create worlds that were rosier than mine. I tried to channel overwhelming emotions. I’m surprised at how far all of it has taken me. Before writing this I’d told some people my story. I’m sure these people kept me alive; kept me save … sincerely, these are the folks I wanna thank from the floor of my heart. Everyone of you knows who you are … great humans, probably angels. I don’t know what happens now, and that’s alrite. I don’t have any secrets I need kept anymore. There’s probably some small shit still, but you know what I mean. I was never alone, as much as I felt like it … as much as I still do sometimes. I never was. I don’t think I ever could be. Thanks. To my first love. I’m grateful for you. Grateful that even though it wasn’t what I hoped for and even though it was never enough, it was. Some things never are … and we were. I won’t forget you. I won’t forget the summer. I’ll remember who I was when I met you. I’ll remember who you were and how we’ve both changed and stayed the same. I’ve never had more respect for life and living than I have right now. Maybe it takes a near death experience to feel alive. Thanks. To my mother, you raised me strong. I know I’m only braved because you were first … so thank you. All of you. For everything good. I feel like a free man. If I listen closely … I can hear the sky falling too.

-Frank"

xp understated overstated

Like.... this sentence alone: " By the time I realized I was in love, it was malignant. It was hopeless. There was no escaping, no negotiation with the feeling. No choice. It was my first love, it changed my life" destroys me, and the way he manages to convey in the gaps between the sentences the human cost of closets and shame.

I wrote this on twitter already, but it's 2012. From now on, if we can dispense with the PR managed coming outs and either have a simple not-a-big-deal "I'm queer" or - if people want to - an actual sense of who people are as people, that would be great.

Because "I'm gay" or "I'm bi" or whatever tells you very very little about who a person is, but this tells you a hell of a lot.

I cannot wait until I try to talk about this at work tomorrow only to have nobody at work know who I'm talking about.

that is amazing

Is it distasteful to rank something as the best coming out ever?

total side note - i thought pyramids was the lead single and hadn't heard thinkin bout you which is stunnnnnning.

Ugh, half the comments on his fb page are gross. I expect it will only get worse over the next couple days.

(Also, people are cooking up theories that the "he/him" is maybe a car or music or his inner self.)

raw as hell

yeah, well.

you know what? half of the comments are gross and a quarter of them are "i'll support him anyway" but a quarter of them are genuinely supportive and proud and moved and those are coming from all manner of different sorts of people.

and Angel Haze (queer female rapper A++ awesome) went to town on bigoted douchebags on her twitter in defence of him and Earl Sweatshirt tweeted "proud of Frank" so i'm just soaking in the good vibes of positivity and ignoring the assholes.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6mk5iBZdP1qav783o1_1280.png

damn i didn't know angel haze was queer

i have no mind to care about bigots

she's bi, I think?

a few of the tracks that were more obviously about picking up girls didn't end up on King, which is the 'official' mixtape that cherrypicks the best from Altered Ego and No Greater Love but 'Make It Raee'n' is a fairly explicit voracious account of stealing dudes' girlfriends and getting them off repeatedly. Her 'Bitches on My Dick' freestyle is also awesome and I know Rev is a fan.

Those are both on 'Altered Ego'.

Make It Raeen opens with: "This is for them girrrrrls that / like them other girrrrrls back'

But yeah, her raps tend towards the intellectual, spiritual and viscerally emotional more often than the sexual, and her aggressive side is more battle raps than sex raps, so it's not like it's been central.

In the middle of her absolutely emotionally devastating remix of Jamie Foxx's Fall For Your Type, though she does amusingly say "I'll be the gun / You be my holster" but I usually don't have time to pick up on the double entendre because i'm too busy pretending not to cry.

Actually, Tyler's response might win the whole thing: https://twitter.com/fucktyler/status/220409501487079424

"My Big Brother Finally Fucking Did That. Proud Of That N***** Cause I Know That Shit Is Difficult Or Whatever. Anyway. Im A Toilet."

"Im A Toilet" = classic

Anyway, Frank's statement is an incredible thing. Wow.

and Tyler a quarter of an hour later:

"AY BITCHES, IMA START SINGING SO LIKE, ALL OF FRANKS BITCHES CAN YOU COME OVER HERE AND LIKE HOLLA AT YA BOY"

lol

Tyler is a dick, but he's not always unfunny.

Wow, yeah, that is an incredible piece of writing. Generally, I hate when coming out is described as "brave" but I think it's an apt description here. Not looking forward to the backlash from certain people (I've already seen a lot of annoying comments on twitter on fbook), but yeah... amazing. Shout out to Frank Ocean, for real.

I'm just now hearing "Thinkin Bout You" tonight for the first time, and it's like an atom bomb paired with his letter.

(also, the video is v good)

Lots of people looking for the story to mean something else, it seems - like he's talking about himself, his music, his car, God.

But Tyler and Earl's reactions seem to confirm he's talking about his sexuality, don't they?

But Tyler and Earl's reactions seem to confirm he's talking about his sexuality, don't they?

I'd say so.

Um. Yes.

As does the fact that he published it early to respond to rumours that had been going around for a few days, and the fact that if he fell in love with his music or God or his car, it is highly unlikely that any of those things would have a girlfriend and thus be unable to reciprocate his love.

Alright man, I agree. I'm not questioning what he's saying myself. Just taking it all in, thinking out loud, etc.

yeah, fair. sorry! wasn't peeved at you.

trying to wrap my mind around how people on the internet read that and think "this is a dude passionately declaring his love for his car."

sigh.

Easy. People now find themselves in the awkward position of having previously praised someone they're now afraid of.

man. i have such a hard time wrapping my head around that. even for the three years of undergrad i spent closeted, when i was on some level terrified of out gay dudes, i was still friends with a bunch of them.

the weirdest for me have been the comments saying "i still respect the guy and like his music but won't be able to relate to the songs as much now that i know they're written about dudes"

which... half of them are totally neutral songs? idgi.

I'm not saying homophobia (either latent or aggressive) is okay, but I know where it comes from. Be it religion-inspired or the macho culture that permeates middle and lower class (and, hell, upper class) male youth, an extra jolt of assured heterosexuality is earned every time a joke or slam is made against anything different.

Lots of people grow out of religion and everybody grows out of youth, but a lot of that stuff hangs around for some and keeps getting passed on.

Sure. I didn't mean whence homophobia? I meant like - how radically altered can someone's experience of a song they previously loved be? If they've given a song their own meaning and invested their feelings and experiences into it, the intent of Ocean in writing it is meaningless.

If I had to identify with the singer of songs I love to take something out of them, I wouldn't have that many favourite songs, given the lack of gay dudes. There are tons of love songs that click with me where I just mentally gender flip either the performer or the audience or where i mediate the sentiments of the song through me or whatever and I don't think it's a way of listening specific to queers. Like, surely straight guys like love songs by women sometimes and don't just view themselves as the intended recipient?

I can't really engage in that whole discussion because of how little I pay attention to lyrics in general, and even less in the realm of love songs (which typically only mean anything to me when I'm either falling for or getting over a girl). But yeah, I guess for some people it's a very big deal.

I imagine for these people it's like watching all six seasons of LOST only to find out they'd died and were going to heaven, and then they look back on all six seasons and get all FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU.

nothing really to add here, just that the thunking literalism of people saying I CAN'T RELATE is dismaying, & the guy's thank you notes are really moving. so psyched for this record.

It reminds me of youtube comments I once read about Smalltown Boy written by people who grew up loving the song and only now found out what it's about, thus proceeding to actually blame Jimmy Somerville for ruining one of their favourite songs.

Like, how fucking insecure are you that you not only have to dissociate yourself from it but also that person, as if they're somehow outside their own lives and work and at fault for ruining it by infecting it with their sexuality.

nothing really to add here, just that the thunking literalism of people saying I CAN'T RELATE is dismaying, & the guy's thank you notes are really moving.

^^

i don't have a lot invested in Ocean as an artist or w/e but that post was gorgeously written

(and i find it pretty upsetting to think that people don't believe in universals of human emotion, bcz i am a massive hippy)

what a terrifically moving piece of writing. jesus.

where are the people saying they can't relate? checked his facebook page and the comments were 90% positive.

Speech Debelle ‏@speechdebelle
Frank Ocean didn't "come out", he just let us in. Letting people in is what a true artist does. He is honest and brave.

trying to repress the hey i'll quote a stupid thing i read on the internet urge itt, because that there are people missing the point probably doesn't need to trample into this otherwise nice moment. but i was flicking through the thread on the kanyetothe forum, & it's split between "who cares", which is obviously fine, & "i hope he doesn't write a song about a guy".
xp

He was great at Panorama - wish they could release an official video of that.

One view, and a closer view with some audio issues.

He also didn’t show up to like 5 festivals on 2017 including primaverasound so spinning it as an emotional thing due to his brother’s passing is a bit flakey.

i just get the impression that he doesn't really like performing live, and his grief about his brother's death and his big vision for the coachella performance having to be abandoned last minute due to the ankle injury or whatever it was no doubt made that worse

Just revisited that SNL performance of 'Thinking 'bout You'...it's really is astonishing and when John Mayer kicks in at the end it goes absolutely celestial...he is good